Illegal Bat protest

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I was waiting for a game to end before my daughter's team took the field.

The team that was down by 7-8 runs (imagine that!) suddenly called "time" to protest the other team usuing an illegal bat. (ASA)

After five minutes of head scratching, and a couple of phone calls, it turns out that the bat was illegal. (Older model...) I believe the only penalty was that the player using the bat was ejected. Game finished by the same score.

I heard some of the losing teams parents saying that the whole ordeal was embarrassing. They weren't losing by 7 runs because of one illegal bat, just take our lumps and move on, etc...

I guess my points are 1.) The umps should have caught this during equipment inspection, and 2.) if the one team was going to protest, they should have done it in the first inning.

 

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Did the clock keep running during all this? If so losing team would have been better off trying to win the game. Don't know about the bat.

 

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I've had parents chirp at me to protest some silly trivial item over the years in a game we were losing. I've always said..."I'm not going to make our kids believe that the reason we're losing is something different than what it is...the other team is outplaying us."

I've seen coaches over the years latch onto some silly meaningless item that has nothing to do with the outcome. It makes them look like whiners and it sets the stage for the kids to become whiners. Just play the game.

 

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I agree TNTCoach.

 

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If you really want to bring out an illegal bat, your smart enough to do it after the second or third game. Seems the umpires stop checking equipment after the first couple of games. I apologize to any umpires who check it every game, but there are not a lot of you out there.

 

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There are not many teams that need to bring out an illegal bat after two or three games they play with legal ones.

 

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This reminds me of a story I was told at a National Tournament last year.

IN NSA I guess you can accuse the other team of doctoring bats. You can then fork over $200 to have the bat tested. The bat is then removed from the game and sent to a lab. Supposedly, one team had very deep pockets and in a Finals game they protested every bat in the other dugout. Something like 14 bats or $2,800 cash. So the team that had all their bats yanked then purchased 10 new bats from the vendor on site and then protest all of the other teams bats.

- I have my doubts this happened but it does sound funny
- this is why protests need to be reasonable
- and this is why orphans make great players because only a parent has that type of money, no coach does

 

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The bat in question was a Yellow Catalyst (-8) CP305 that does have all the proper markings to initially identify it as a legal bat. I wouldn't expect any umpire to totally memorize the ASA bat list and all it's changes, that is just not practical. That is why ASA has a penalty for using an illegal bat (equipment). If they expected blue to catch everything there would be no penalty created to address it.

What's to say the kid even produced the bat during inspections, she could have pulled it from her bag after the fact.

The team using the bat was from Canada and the coach apologized as they very rarely play any ASA tournaments and the bat had never been an issue in the past. He accepted the pentalty without question and the game went on.

The protesting team was looking for a remedy other than what was imposed as they said several girls had used that bat. They penalty only applies to the player using it when it is discovered.

 

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This reminds me of a story I was told at a National Tournament last year.

IN NSA I guess you can accuse the other team of doctoring bats. You can then fork over $200 to have the bat tested. The bat is then removed from the game and sent to a lab. Supposedly, one team had very deep pockets and in a Finals game they protested every bat in the other dugout. Something like 14 bats or $2,800 cash. So the team that had all their bats yanked then purchased 10 new bats from the vendor on site and then protest all of the other teams bats.

- I have my doubts this happened but it does sound funny
- this is why protests need to be reasonable
- and this is why orphans make great players because only a parent has that type of money, no coach does

If true (doubtful) I'd hope the coach of the 1st team would get banned for life, if none of the bats failed. One or two bats ok I can buy it. All 14? That coach is just being a ****.

 

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If true (doubtful) I'd hope the coach of the 1st team would get banned for life.

why if that is within his rights, there should be someone else there with a brain and say something like "give us $2800 to protest it, after the game we will take all their bats and test them. If all of them are found to be illegal and they win the game they then will be forced to give up the championship to you"

But you got to admit that is kind of funny, i think i would say to the ump "well this bat is illegal it is all dented up. Blue would look at it and say no it does not have any dents in it... I would then say it will as soon as i am done using it on that coach"

 

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You can protest the bat, but like you said it is $200 per bat tested. If the tournament director and/or UIC inspect it and feel it might have been tampered with or altered, then it can be confiscated and sent off to an independant lab (that the NSA and other sanctions use) for testing.

I am just figuring out how I would approach this. First I would need $200 per bat totaling $2800 cash. Second, I would be doing visual inspections on the bats specifically the end cap which is where any altering begins. There are a couple of additional items involved: If any coach/player refused to hand over there bat if protested, it is an automatic 2 years suspension on the spot for both. If the NSA gets back results that indicate the bats were altered, then it becomes 5 years for both coach and player. If I do not feel any of the bats were altered and this was done for spite, then that is $2800 down the drain for Mr Deep Pockets.

With all of that being stated, I truly have a hard time with the part about 14 bats. Maybe one or two max, but would have to see someone hand over $2800 to believe it. It does make for a great story though around the bracket in between games.

This reminds me of a story I was told at a National Tournament last year.

IN NSA I guess you can accuse the other team of doctoring bats. You can then fork over $200 to have the bat tested. The bat is then removed from the game and sent to a lab. Supposedly, one team had very deep pockets and in a Finals game they protested every bat in the other dugout. Something like 14 bats or $2,800 cash. So the team that had all their bats yanked then purchased 10 new bats from the vendor on site and then protest all of the other teams bats.

- I have my doubts this happened but it does sound funny
- this is why protests need to be reasonable
- and this is why orphans make great players because only a parent has that type of money, no coach does

 

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You can protest the bat, but like you said it is $200 per bat tested. If the tournament director and/or UIC inspect it and feel it might have been tampered with or altered, then it can be confiscated and sent off to an independant lab (that the NSA and other sanctions use) for testing.

I am just figuring out how I would approach this. First I would need $200 per bat totaling $2800 cash. Second, I would be doing visual inspections on the bats specifically the end cap which is where any altering begins. There are a couple of additional items involved: If any coach/player refused to hand over there bat if protested, it is an automatic 2 years suspension on the spot for both. If the NSA gets back results that indicate the bats were altered, then it becomes 5 years for both coach and player. If I do not feel any of the bats were altered and this was done for spite, then that is $2800 down the drain for Mr Deep Pockets.

With all of that being stated, I truly have a hard time with the part about 14 bats. Maybe one or two max, but would have to see someone hand over $2800 to believe it. It does make for a great story though around the bracket in between games.

I totally agree.
It was told to me by an ump after hours. Who claimed he once coached some unbeatable team. And then told me this story. I suspect that there once was aguy who prtested the bats of the 2-3 best players on the other team hoping to disturb the force........but a whole dugout seems insane.

 

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I've had parents chirp at me to protest some silly trivial item over the years in a game we were losing. I've always said..."I'm not going to make our kids believe that the reason we're losing is something different than what it is...the other team is outplaying us."

I've seen coaches over the years latch onto some silly meaningless item that has nothing to do with the outcome. It makes them look like whiners and it sets the stage for the kids to become whiners. Just play the game.

Good point.